There are less than two weeks remaining til the inaugural Glentress Seven – a new seven hour race at the popular Tweed Valley trail centre. The race is part of the TweedLove festival, a week long celebration of all forms of cycling, with events taking place for all ages and abilities from the 11th to the 19th June.

You've just tilted the camera, haven't you?

The Glentress Seven, being held on Saturday the 11th June, is the first time the trail centre has hosted such an event and Forestry Commission Scotland has given the okay to make the course a bit special with a very high percentage of new or normally off-limits tracks being used for the race loop.

The course uses the best existing tracks as it heads out from the event village at The Hub, but after the initial climb things will get very unfamiliar in places. The Trailfairies have been doing a massive amount of work to get things ready in time, and the course is now almost finished.

New sections include a new hand cut link called The Growler, still carefully hidden in what’s likely to become known as ‘the dog sector’. A course map will be available on the day when all will become clear, but please note, the new sections of trail will be closed again after the event.

“This is year one for this event, and we’re starting as we hope to go on – with a course that’s big fun to ride and an event village that will make the day feel like a festival”, says organiser Neil Dalgleish.

"the dog sector" - a slightly worrying name for a piece of trail..

“The main descent is huge fun – it’s got loads of flow, through a big variety of trail types. A favourite section is a high speed natural section which slaloms through some open glades – there’s nothing else like it at Glentress. Careful if you’ve got wide bars!”

Speaking of slaloms, the course has a spectacular open finish down the dual slalom course above the Hub car park, which is being transformed into a car-free event village for the day. It’s likely that this is the first and only time the Hub car park will be used like this. The Hub café and facilities are due to be closed at the end of 2011, so it’s a chance to enjoy a big party atmosphere in what has been the heart and soul of Glentress for the last ten years.
In addition to the race, the other trails will mostly be open as normal, so racer support crews can get out and ride too. The event village will have a pump track, stalls and stuff for kids too.